Tracking People’s Daily — June 24, 2020

Page 1: No political leaders on the front page today, although Xi was mentioned. But here are the stories to note:

• The first piece celebrates the completion of the constellation that forms the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, with the launch of the 55th satellite on Tuesday. The Xinhua English report is much more detailed. The People’s Daily story talks about the basic facts and then goes into talking about how this is the success of generations of work towards self-reliance and independent innovation. It also pitches BeiDou as a system that offers people around the world an alternative. There’s a bit in there tying Chinese tech advancement as benefiting people around the world.=
• There’s a piece on FDI data. It says that FDI in May was 68.63 billion yuan, an increase of 7.5% year-on-year; from Jan to May, it was 355.18 billion yuan, a 3.8% decline year-on-year. FDI in high-tech industries increased by 2% year-on-year, of which information services, e-commerce services, R&D and design services increased by 42.3%, 67.9% and 49.8% respectively. This SCMP piece has more details.
• A really long piece on the efforts and importance of achieving the poverty alleviation goal.

Page 2: A couple of reports on the outbreak in Beijing. First, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan carried out a review. The report says that over 3.2 million people in the city have been tested so far. And another report which informs of what the city’s leadership is doing. Note the words today: the situation is “still severe and complicated.”

Page 3: A few stories to note on the page. First, a report on the RIC summit. The report focuses on Wang Yi’s comments.

“Wang Yi made three suggestions on strengthening China-Russia-India cooperation: First, adhere to multilateralism and improve global governance. The second is to strengthen anti-epidemic cooperation and work together to overcome the epidemic situation. The third is to improve the cooperation mechanism and form a tripartite joint force. Support the Russian side to hold the first China-Russia-India defense ministers meeting to enhance the level of defense and security cooperation. Wang Yi emphasized that China, Russia, and India are both big countries that insist on strategic autonomy. We should grasp the overall cooperation situation of the three countries as partners and opportunities.”

The report mentioned Sergei Lavrov’s remarks, although not in detail, and didn’t really talk about what India’s S. Jaishankar said.

Second, a story about the UN Human Rights Council adopting a China-proposed resolution on win-win cooperation in the realm of human rights. I think MoFA’s explanation provides clarity on what the resolution entails.

Third, a long piece with nothing new on the China-Arab States Political Party Dialogue, which I covered in an earlier edition, and another commentary on the meeting. And finally, a commentary by the Ambassador to Uganda.

Page 4: A long commentary on recent problems with discipline inspection. The piece highlights typical cases where the party line on discipline has been violated, such as bribery, extravagance, use of public resources for private purposes, falsifying data, etc and adds:

“We must deeply understand the stubbornness and repetitiveness of hedonism and extravagance, dig deep and carefully to investigate the problems of violation of discipline…and prevent the recurrence of old problems, the emergence of new problems, and the rise of small problems.”

Another commentary that lashes out at “some politicians” in the US for targeting China with regard to the epidemic. There was none of this last week, as Yang Jiechi went to visit the US. To be fair, though, last week was all about the Uyghur rights act.

And then there are reports on the Hong Kong natsec legislation, basically touting public support. Among these, I am only discussing this one about the so-called consultations held in Hong Kong with regard to the legislation. As expected, it talks about broad based support for the legislation. And adds:

“The legislation will embody the principle of ‘punishing the very few and protecting the majority,’ ensure that the capitalist system implemented in Hong Kong remains unchanged, ensure that the rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong residents in accordance with the law are not compromised, ensure the judicial independence of Hong Kong, and ensure that foreigners are in all legal rights and interests of Hong Kong and the confidence of foreign investors in Hong Kong. For the vast majority of Hong Kong residents, this legislation will add a ‘guardian deity’” to preserve the one country two systems.

Page 16: The international page’s top story is about the resilience of Sino-Russian trade. There’s been a substantive shift that’s been underway in Sino-Russian trade, with tech becoming a key component. Here’s an excerpt:

“Right now, scientific and technological innovation cooperation is injecting vitality into Sino-Russian economic and trade quality and efficiency. Huawei recently signed a 5G network agreement with a Russian mobile communications operator. Huawei has also invested heavily in the field of artificial intelligence in Russia. Tencent and Alibaba Group gradually expanded their business in Russia. The Russian Direct Investment Fund and China Investment Group jointly established a Sino-Russian technology innovation fund with a total value of 1 billion US dollars.”